


Where Do You Think We Are?

by LightMayo



Category: Scrubs (TV), The Underland Chronicles - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Episode 3.14 My Screw Up, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23307532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightMayo/pseuds/LightMayo
Summary: After the final battle, Gregor needs help seeing what happened.
Relationships: Ares & Gregor Campbell
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Where Do You Think We Are?

**Author's Note:**

> Last lines from Joshua Radin - “Winter”

The first think he woke up to was Boots’ cookie crumbs. “Gre-go,” she said in her cute toddler voice.

 _I’m alive_ , he thought. The last moments. Dying in the cave. Grasping Ares’ claw. “Don’t go, Ares,” he had said. The tunnel of light.

”Alright, then,” his dad said as he pulled Boots down. Gregor looked around the hospital room. He saw the claw before he felt it cemented on his hand.

Ares, was he dead? He couldn’t be. Not his bond. But having his claw torn off, how did that happen? And the wounds to the neck, those were pretty rough.

He didn’t want to ask. Perhaps on some level he knew the answer. “We’ll leave you alone for a while,” his dad said. Gregor watched his family walk out the door as a doctor walked in to do some medical checks.

Luxa followed the doctor with a bucket of water that she placed his hand into. “How does it feel?” she asked.

”Empty,” he said. The only one Gregor really wanted to see was Ares. She placed her hand in his.

Gregor cleared his throat. “Luxa, thanks, but you can go now.”

She looked offended at first, but then seemed worried. “Gregor, we’re here for you,” she said. She leaned against him.

”Really, go,” he said. She walked out of the room, but not before she looked back at him, concerned. At the same time she walked out the door, Ares walked in.

”You misplaced your claw,” Gregor said.

Ares laughed in response, his deep _hurr-hurr_ laugh that made Gregor think everything might be okay. “Yeah, it’s been tough getting used to it.”

”So, how’ve you been?”

”Alright, all things considered. I was worried about you. I thought I had let you die. What kind of bond would that make me?”

”Not a very good one,” Gregor said with a dark chuckle. “I was worried about you, too, you took some pretty bad wounds. But, you made it through that plague, so I figure you could make it through anything, right?”

”Pretty much. I’m here.”

”Could you stay here?” Gregor asked. It was only his bond who he felt truly safe with. They really had gotten closer than Gregor could have imagined a year ago.

”I’ll be here as long as you need me.”

Gregor spent most of the next few days with Ares. He might have been rude to his family, but he wouldn’t worry about that. It was on the third day after Gregor woke up that they were going to the celebration Ares had told him about.

”It’s for the two of us, defeating the Bane,” Ares had explained. “It’s gonna be a party, music, dancing, food. Luxa said she’d come get us. It sounded like fun for Gregor, although he worried his mom would embarrass him again.

On the way there, Ares walked alongside Gregor, who wondered why they couldn’t just fly. It seemed like too long of a walk considering the party was in the palace, but Gregor didn’t pay much attention. When they were almost there, he thought he heard a body of water.

Just before they arrived, Ares stopped him. “Gregor, before we go, there’s just one thing I need you to do.”

”What is it?” Gregor asked.

”I need you to forgive yourself.”

Gregor looked straight at Ares. He saw his bond, the one he promised to defend to the death. He saw the only one who had really been with him to see everything he saw. He saw the bat who worked tirelessly for a city that would never appreciate him. He saw who he trusted more than anyone else. And Ares trusted him.

”Okay,” he said, and he chuckled, although he didn’t know why.

”Good,” Ares said.

”Hey,” he said to Ares with a smile, “we shouldn’t have used all the film. We could’ve taken some fun pictures.”

”Pictures of what?” Luxa asked.

”You know, people dancing, celebrating, having a good time.”

Luxa looked concerned.

“Where do you think we are?”

Gregor looked around, really looked around, for the first time. He looked towards Ares, but Ares wasn’t there. The smile fell off of Gregor’s face, and he was about to cry. The river. Luxa had told him, this was what they did with their dead. He didn’t know when they brought back the body.

He did not respond as Luxa led him to sit down on the front bench facing the river. People started sitting down around him. Luxa and his dad both put their hand on his right shoulder. He said nothing.

Ares’ body floated out onto the river. Not the Ares he had been seeing, but the one with the claw cut off messily by shiners, with deep scrapes into the neck. The one he had sworn to protect and failed.

It was more than that. When he had Ares there was someone who he knew was looking out for him, and his future might be okay. Now, he had to confront the fact that he had no future.

Gregor knew he should look back at all the people there who cared about him: Luxa, his mom and dad, Lizzie, Boots, Hazard, Nerissa, Howard, Mareth, Vikus, Dulcet, and even Ripred was there. Nevertheless, he could not take his eyes off the burning body of his bond, floating down the river, as pain was etched into Gregor’s face.

_And I remember the sound_

_Of your November downtown_

_And I remember the truth_

_A warm December with you_

_But I don't have to make this mistake_

_And I don't have to stay this way_

_If only I would wait_


End file.
